about taking dats

[theilleztpaki]

hello, im a sophmore in college and going to start spring semester in about 2 weeks. Anyways i have a question about when to take the dats. Someeone told me to take it after my junior year around april/may so i can send my app in june, for early decision. But i dont understand how im going to take it in april/may when i have classes to study for and possibly finals to study for too. so i dont understand what to do. i knowi have a year to go, but i want to plan everything out, so ill be more organized. can any1 explain to me what exactly i have to do..thanks for ur answers in advance

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[eternalxdemon]

hello, im a sophmore in college and going to start spring semester in about 2 weeks. Anyways i have a question about when to take the dats. Someeone told me to take it after my junior year around april/may so i can send my app in june, for early decision. But i dont understand how im going to take it in april/may when i have classes to study for and possibly finals to study for too. so i dont understand what to do. i knowi have a year to go, but i want to plan everything out, so ill be more organized. can any1 explain to me what exactly i have to do..thanks for ur answers in advance

that person told you the right thing... wat's confusing about it? it's all about time management. but hmm if u don't want to worry about finals and stuff that may occur during march/april you could take the DAT's at the end of your winter break junior year... that way you have like a month to study for it. also if u don't do so hot u can always retake it in march/april or jmay or june at the end of spring semester.

 

[theilleztpaki]

thanks.. anybody else has a view????/

that person told you the right thing... wat's confusing about it? it's all about time management. but hmm if u don't want to worry about finals and stuff that may occur during march/april you could take the DAT's at the end of your winter break junior year... that way you have like a month to study for it. also if u don't do so hot u can always retake it in march/april or jmay or june at the end of spring semester.

 

[Ranelar]

No such thing as early decision (if you're using the term the same way people use it for undergrad admission). With that out of the way, there's no "view" about this, it's fact that you want to take the DAT on or before April/May so that you can apply in June. Maybe take a DAT course in the Fall and schedule the DAT right before winter break ends if you really want some time off before the test.

 

[theilleztpaki]

Thanks.. Do u know whats the average time, in hours, a person spends studying for the Dats. For me. i forgot alot of stuff, so i would have to start afresh.. so having said that, how many hours do u think i would have to study for??? If anyone else has an "opinion" about my original post, fell free to post it.

No such thing as early decision (if you're using the term the same way people use it for undergrad admission). With that out of the way, there's no "view" about this, it's fact that you want to take the DAT on or before April/May so that you can apply in June. Maybe take a DAT course in the Fall and schedule the DAT right before winter break ends if you really want some time off before the test.

 

[Ranelar]

I worked from 10am-6pm and studied from 6pm-12am every weekday for about 3 months prior to taking the test. I also took a Kaplan course (overlapping on my study time).

 

[rewJW]

Thanks.. Do u know whats the average time, in hours, a person spends studying for the Dats. For me. i forgot alot of stuff, so i would have to start afresh.. so having said that, how many hours do u think i would have to study for???

That's all up to you, man. Some people can bang it out in 2 weeks and get a decent score; some people needs months to study. It depends on your study habits, your ability to retain information, and your time management skills. You know yourself better than we do.

 

[yankees27th]

My personal advice is to study during winter break during junior year and take the DAT then. That's what I'm doing now and I have nothing disrupting my studying. No school, no tests, no papers, etc. If I do poorly when I take the test in a couple weeks I'll still be able to re-take it in April/May.

 

[theilleztpaki]

during the winter break.. but thats only 1 month.. is that enough?? Oh, and tell me how it goes.. and good luck

My personal advice is to study during winter break during junior year and take the DAT then. That's what I'm doing now and I have nothing disrupting my studying. No school, no tests, no papers, etc. If I do poorly when I take the test in a couple weeks I'll still be able to re-take it in April/May.

 

[JamesOSU]

I taught (better than taking IMO) 3 Kaplan DAT courses before my retake (19/20/24 on the first go), studied several hours a day for ~3 weeks after my last Kaplan class, and took 5 full-length practice tests.

Biology is hard to study for, there is just so much, so I got out old books, Micro, Biology, Genetics, and Kaplan's blue book. Chemistry they will ask you just about 1 question for each type (solubility, Ksp, heat transfer, stoich, etc) so know all ~40 topics and you can't miss there. O Chem is similar to Chem, only about ~50 topics to choose 30 questions from, just know how to approach them all. Used Kaplan's strategy for Reading and PAT stuff, and just balled on Math by doing all the practices and really remembering algebra (thats all it is!)